The Joker’s Chaos: 5 Ways To Fight Back
The Dark Knight is filled with summer blockbuster car crashes, bombs and explosions. When all of the smoke clears – a disturbing fire is still burning…It is the scorching flames of human emotion. “I choose chaos,” says the Joker with his melting face of evil. He is the over-wound clown busting out of the box. He is a catalyst for chaos. He is the shadow side.
Let the games begin.
How does the Joker do it? He searches for the shadow side in everyone and creates situations to rattle judgment and destroy balance. He tears at the social and moral fabric with a rusty knife. The dark heart of that psychological cruelty preys upon people’s conflicts, fear, anger, doubt, suppression, ego – and the subsequent erosion of values.
If Batman is the dark knight, Harvey Dent is the white knight on a powerful horse. He is a symbol of law, order and justice. Idealistic, full of promise, a rising star….and he has farther to fall. The brutality he encounters at the Joker’s hand is a slow and deliberate process. When faced with painful loss after loss, what’s left? The rawness (literally and figuratively) of Dent’s transformation through suffering becomes rage, revenge, retribution. He has lost. The Joker is the victor.
We have lost too.
Jung said,“Taking it in its deepest sense, the shadow is the invisible saurian tail that man still drags behind him. Carefully amputated, it becomes the healing serpent of the mysteries. Only monkeys parade with it”.
How do we manage that spiritual surgery?
Conflict and crisis are part of our human drama.The shadow side resides in each of us. Under stress we may find ourselves behaving out of character. And these are challenging times everywhere in the world. How do we avoid the trap that Dent stepped into?
Here are 5 ways to fight back when the Joker and all that chaos appears in our lives:
1. Maintain your practice or discipline, even during difficult times.
During a crisis our normal routines are disrupted, relationships are strained and our lives become chaotic. We stop training, and instead we start to invest our energy in a battle with life. This is a mistake. Movement, meditation and contemplation help ease stress & keep you focused on the moment. This is what being present is all about.
2. Avoid justifying any questionable actions.
Our actions may arise from emotional upheavals which are disconnected from logic. Crisis situations often brings out our negative behavior and actions that we would consider unthinkable under normal circumstances. It is at these moments that we must become aware of our inappropriate responses and not rationalize them. And that requires discipline, reason -– and experience.
3. Examine your judgment and be honest on how you are framing your decisions.
What’s really going on? Acceptance that something bad IS happening as it is happening is the start of managing a challenge. We should assess our motives and be conscious of the long range consequences behind our choices.
4. Seek out the truth of who you are.
Adversity challenges our entire being – mentally, emotionally & physically.We may discover we are not who we thought we are. Letting go of that ego image creates awareness, which in turn creates new options.
5. Practice forgiveness.
Forgiveness is freedom. When we can let go of our hurts and attachments to related emotions — maybe it’s anger, denial, blame or guilt, even shame – we release pent up toxins. They are poison to our body & spirit. Acknowledge the conflict, make amends. Forgive others. Forgive yourself too.
This will help to break us out of our habituated behavior and open us to new responses to challenges. Let it go, and set yourself free.
Toni Josephson
Add comment August 2nd, 2008